Biography
Boris V. Rauschenbach
Boris Rauschenbach was born on January 18, 1915 in Petrograd. He completed his studies at the Aeronautical Institute of Leningrad. Still a student, he built a glider with which he flew at Koktebel, on the coast of the Black Sea, where at that time many glider pilots were competing.
Having completed his studies, Boris moved to Moscow where he applied to enter TsAGI, the country’s main Center of Aeronautical Studies. He learned about the existence of a secret center in the capital, however, that was dedicated to the study of rockets, and he managed to get a job there with the help of its head, Sergei Korolev, whom he had come to know in the summer of 1935 at Koktebel. Korolev made him the main constructor of the winged “212” rocket, which was Korolev’s biggest missile created before the war. The first test launch was carried out by Rauschenbach on January 29, 1939, in absence of his chief: Korolev, declared an enemy of the people, had been condemned to forced labor in the gulag camp Kolyma.
In the last years before the war, the institute where Rauschenbach worked concentrated more on the creation of missile-launchers (known everywhere as “Katyushas”) since winged missiles were believed to have a limited future. Rauschenbach therefore dedicated his studies to rocket-engine combustion. However, in 1942, he, too, was sent to a camp, named “Stroyotryad 18-74.” Later, a special condition for him was agreed on; although he remained imprisoned in the camp, he was permitted to continue collaborating on research for the Military Aeronautical Institute. Having completed his sentence, he was allowed to re-enter Moscow and to work, once again, at the secret military institute. There he was given clearance for the most secret documents, despite the opposition of the Secret Service.
After Stalin’s death, Rauschenbach worked at the Research Institute directed by Mstislav Keldysh, a well-known academic of aerodynamics and a future president of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. During this period, he also received significant acknowledgements for his scientific career: at the age of 43, he became a doctor of sciences, at 51, he became a correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences and at 69, he became an academician.
The photograph of the hidden side of the Moon, the flights of “Vostok” and “Soyuz,” and of “Salut” and “Mir,” – these are all the work of Rauschenbach.
A person with a great desire for knowledge, he directed his unlimited intellectual curiosity toward unpredictable fields, not limiting himself to sciences as he tried to explore the profoundest human dimensions. For many years, he studied the inverse perspective in iconography and wrote two books on this topic. In theology, he was able to demonstrate the truth of the Trinity with the help of mathematics and vector theory.
Boris Rauschenbach died in 2001, during the preparation of this documentary, which keeps alive the memory of him for posterity.
Background
Art, Faith and Science
Many of the films produced by “Father’s House” narrate stories of exceptional people. The personality of the protagonist of this film, Boris V. Rauschenbach (1915-2001), emerges so powerfully that the viewer is left stunned. Rauschenbach's persona is one that allows very few comparisons.
Boris Rauschenbach reached the highest summits of social recognition in Russia: he was an active member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the International Space Academy, a Hero of Socialist Labor, and a winner of the Lenin Award – the highest acknowledgement for a scientist in the U.S.S.R.
This, however, is just one aspect of his many activities. Boris Rauschenbach was the author of numerous books on the theory and history of space-flight as well as on philosophy and theology. This second part of his career, in particular, deserves our admiration. It demonstrates that he was able to maintain his personal liberty and spiritual freedom and the search for God, despite the fact that he was surrounded by adverse circumstances in a time when every form of free thought or manifestation of faith could lead to imprisonment or death.
After he graduated from the Aeronautical Institute with highest possible grades, our protagonist became a brilliant researcher. In 1942, after the invasion by Hitler’s troops, Boris Rauschenbach was arrested and deported to a labor camp because of his German roots, despite his capacities and his evident loyalty. Even in the camp, the U.S.S.R. continued to take advantage of his intelligence and his extraordinary capacities. They sent him research work on aeronautical and military-industrial projects, which he worked on after completing his daily forced labor making bricks, Rauschenbach accomplished these special assignments using all his talent, obtaining excellent results.
Boris survived the extremely harsh conditions of camp life, even though - by his own admission - this was extraordinarily unlikely. Certainly, the intense intellectual activity helped him to survive. In the beginning of the 1950s, Boris was released and was allowed to return to Moscow. There he was called to direct the most important section of the Special Institute of Space Research, in which capacity he became the primary force behind Yuri Gagarin’s space flight in 1961.
His brilliant scientific intuition did not lead him to a materialistic vision, but on the contrary to the real presence of the Creator in every aspect of the world. He perceived not only the physical cosmos, but also the spiritual cosmos. He was bothered, in particular, by one difficult problem: the docking of spaceships. He was able to overcome this challenge through the intuition of the “inverse perspective,” which was inspired by his observation of icons, where that perspective is used to draw attention to the image’s focal point.
The physical and spiritual worlds were not only close together for Rauschenbach - they were two, absolutely interdependent aspects of a unified whole.
One more extraordinary event is featured in the film: in 1998, Rauschenbach experienced clinical death, and he remembers the impressions and visions of this delicate moment of his life.
The transcendent dimension of life entered powerfully into the reflections of this extraordinary scientist and philosopher, in marvelous harmony with the poems of his favorite writer, R. M. Rilke. These poems, along with well-chosen classical music, succeed in giving rise to a creative current that carries the viewer and makes him reflect about his conscience, the Creation and the Creator.
Did you know...
Germans in the Volga Region
... that with the publication of the Manifesto of 1763 (“Manifesto on permitting all foreigners entering Russia to settle in whichever provinces they wish and on granting them rights”), issued by Catherine II, a mass resettlement of German emigrants began in the Russian Volga region. In addition to specially allocated territory in the Saratov province (now the Saratov region), emigrants were granted exemption from military service and freedom of religion. They were allowed to perform their services with all of their sacraments and rites.
The terms of the manifesto proved to be extremely tempting for emigrants – particularly for poor Germans, who were facing intolerable pressure from their feudal lords. And for the Russian government, it was vital to settle and cultivate the lands of the Lower Volga, Central Caucasus and Southern Russia. Since the process of internal migration was being hampered by the nobility, which had fettered the masses in serfdom, emigrants were needed to help the Empire secure its territory. A large number of them were Germans.
It was only toward the middle of the 19th century, however, that the German immigrants had cultivated and began actively developing the land they had been given. The main reason for such a lengthy delay was that the promises that had been made to attract the settlers were not being fulfilled. Adding to the trouble were raids by nomads, the destruction of the peasant war of 1773-1775 and the incompetence of the Germans using the land. Originally, it had been planned that experienced plowmen would settle the area.
On the whole, the German colonies had become quite successful before the start of World War I, both in the development of agriculture and the economic and social life of their regions.
In 1915, laws were passed liquidating the land holdings of Russian subjects of German origin, which brought an end to the activity of German social organizations and the very existence of the diaspora of the many thousands of Germans in Russia.
Once the Soviet regime came to power, the so-called Labor Commune of the Volga Germans was created, which was later reformed as the ASSR (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) of Volga Germans.
The Republic of Volga Germans was distinguished for its relative success in the Soviet Union, largely thanks to the national characteristics of the Germans, who managed to preserve their culture despite being so far from their historical homeland. Their natural practicality and purposefulness bore fruit, and the Republic of Volga Germans began to stand out for its successes in agro-industrial development, as well as in culture. For example, it was one of the first republics of the U.S.S.R. to achieve universal literacy.
But the period of development and prosperity of the Soviet-German economy and culture did not last for long.
In August 1941, after the outbreak of war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, the Volga Germans were accused of spying, sabotage, and cooperation with the German authorities. The territory of the ASSR VG was dissolved and split between the Saratov region and the Stalingrad region (now the Volgograd region), and the Germans were deported to Kazakhstan and neighboring regions. The Soviet Germans ceased to exist as a unit within the national statehood.
They were rehabilitated only in 1955, and even then, just some returned home.